Helmet



Dec. 20, 1966 M. T. MARIETTA HELMET Filed Dec. 15, 1964 INVENTOR. WZ'iae/Z'MXa 1 4 W- A TTUjP/Vi) United States Patent 3,292,180 HELMET Michael T. Marietta, 5538 University Blvd., Dallas, Tex. 75206 Filed Dec. 15, 1964, Ser. No. 418,470

3 Claims. (Cl. 23)

This invention relates generally to improvements in headgear, and more particularly, to a padded helmet of the type primarily suitable for use by athletes such as football players and the like.

Various types of padded helmets have been developed for use by individuals engaged in sporting activities. One of the outstanding problems involved in using the prior known devices is that of securing and maintaining on hand an adequate supply of the proper sizes of padded helmets in order to insure the constant availability of a properly sized helmet for every member of the team which, as one may readily realize, runs into a considerable inventory especially for a college or professional football squad, for example.

In the case of headgear such as the military headliners and the safety hat as worn by workers in the construction field, the problem of providing for various sizes is not present since only one size shell is produced for the headgear and the desired individual fitting is obtained by means of regulating a peripheral headband usually attached to the interior of the shell by means of chordal straps rigidly attached within the shell.

In the case of a padded headgear such as the football helmet utilized to illustrate the present invention, means heretofore have been non-existent for the instantaneous changing of the size of but a single helmet shell in order to properly fit the head of any wearer.

Accordingly, one of the primary objects of the present invention is to provide a helmet of the padded type having a unisize shell and including changeable peripheral cushioning means.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a helmet of the padded type comprising a shell having fixed mounting means secured therein for the removable attachment thereto of different cushioning means.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a padded helmet including removable cushioning means and a fixedly mounted head harness provided with a removable crown piece.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a padded helmet including peripheral cushioning means having means for protecting the neck of the wearer and for preventing tilting of the helmet forwardly.

With these and other objects in view which will more readily appear as the nature of the invention is better understood, the invention consists in the novel construction, combination, and arrangement of parts hereinafter more fully described, illustrated and claimed.

A preferred and practical embodiment of the invention is shown in the accompanying drawing in which:

FIGURE 1 is a front elevation of a helmet according to the present invention;

FIGURE 2 is a vertical section taken along the line '22 of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is a bottom plan view of the helmet of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 4 is a perspective view of the frontal cushion;

FIGURE 5 is a perspective view of the inside of the posterior cushion; and

FIGURE 6 is a perspective view of the outside of the posterior cushion.

Similar reference characters designate corresponding parts throughout the several views of the drawing.

Referring now to the drawings, particularly FIGURES l and 2, it will be seen that the invention is illustrated ice as applied to a helmet such as commonly used by foot: ball players, however, it will be understood that the invention as set forth herein may be applied to any of various other types of headgear. The shell 1 which may be constructed of any suitable type of material, such as laminated glass fiber, is of the usual preferred configuration with a front edge 2 adapted to fit over the forehead of the wearer at a point just above the eyes and a rear portion 3 extending lower than the front to cover the lower portion of the back of the head.

In utilizing the present invention it will be seen that but a single size shell 1 will be necessary since the very essence of the invention involves the replaceable padding or cushion elements for selectively determining differently sized helmets. According, the shell 1 should be of a size large enough which when provided with the appropriate cushioning elements will fit the largest size head to be encountered. Usually this means that the helmet will have to be adaptable to fit the numerous sizes somewhere between six and a half to seven and three-quarters.

Fixedly mounted within the shell 1 is a head harness assembly generally designated 4 and comprising a web-like structure including a plurality of radially disposed suspension straps 5 extending outwardly from a central core section 6. The harness assembly 4 is preferably constructed with an uppermost backing of webbing material 8 having lateral stability, such as duck, to which is attached on the undersurface thereof, such as by gluing, a substantially thick layer of resilient padding 9, such as high impact rubber, which coextensively underlies th duck backing 8 of the core section 6 and suspension straps 5 from the core opening 7 disposed above the top of the wearers head to a point short of the ends of the straps 5, as will be most clearly seen in FIGURE 2. The rubber padding 9 terminates with a bevel or chamfer 10 short of the free ends of the backing 8 of the suspension straps 5 for reasons which will be described hereinafter. The free ends of the suspension straps 5 beyond the bevels 10 provide a plurality of mounting tabs 11 for the purpose of attaching the harness assembly 4 to the shell 1 by means of any suitable type of fastening such as the screw and nut devices 12 as shown.

A crown piece, generally designated 13, and adapted to be removably connected to the head harness assembly 4 includes a body similarly constructed of high impact type rubber and includes a central core 14 and a coplanar cushion surface 15. In order to provide for the removable attachment of the crown piece to the harness assembly the central core 14 is preferably constructed to provide a keystone shape when viewed in vertical section and includes a diameter slightly greater than the diameter of the core opening 7. In this manner it will be seen that the resiliency of the core 14 will insure a snap fit type of attachment for the crown piece to the core section 6 of the harness assembly. The crown piece 13 will be provided in different sizes, that is, the co-planar cushion surface 15 will be available in different thicknesses to accommodate the different sizes of the wearers heads since the suspension straps 5 of the harness assembly 4 are relatively fixed to the shell 1.

In order to provide the peripheral padding within the helmet, a pair of cushion elements are included comprising a frontal cushion generally designated 16 and a posterior cushion generally designated 17. Each of these elements is formed of a substantially thick innermost layer of high impact type rubber padding such as Insolite as manufactured by the US. Rubber Company. This layer of rubber padding 18 is attached, such as by gluing, to a backing sheet 19 of heavy duck or other suitable material having lateral stability. As seen in FIGURES 2 and 3, the frontal 16 and posterior l7 cushion elements combine to provide protective padding means around the entire inner periphery of the helmet and extend vertically from a point well above the level of the ears in the case of both the frontal and posterior cushions, downwardly to a point below the level of the rim 20 of the shell at the rear of the helmet.

In order to provide for the aemovable attachment of the frontal and posterior cushion elements, a pair of mounting strips 21, 21 are secured within the shell adjacent the front and rear rim thereof. The mounting strips 21, 21 may be formed of any suitable substantially rigid material and are secured to the shell by suitable fastening members 22, such as the screw-nut devices illustrated. In the case of the front mounting strip 21,

it will be seen that the same fastening devices 12 as used,

to secure the forwardmost suspension straps 5 by means of their mounting tabs 11, may be utilized to attach the front mounting strip 21 to the helmet shell.

In order to removably attach the cushion elements to the mounting strips 21, 21 a plurality of fastening means such as snap fasteners 23 are secured tothe backing layers 19 while the mating portions of these fasteners 23 are attached to the mounting strips 21, 21.

From the foregoing it will be seen that any size helmet may be readily obtained by the use of frontal and posterior cushioning elements 16 and 17 having the required thickness of rubber padding 18. As will be seen in FIGURES 2, 4, 5 and 6, the top surface of the two cushioning elements are beveled or ohamfered as at 24 to present a more nearly parallel surface juxtaposed to the bevel of the suspension straps 5. By this constnuction the top portions of the two cushion elements will be permitted to lie as close as possible to the inner surface of the shell 1 and a maximum amount of coextensive contact area therebetween will be maintained.

In order to provide the smooth inner periphery of the cushion elements as illustrated in FIGURE 3 to insure a minimum amount of space between the inner surface of the cushion elements and the wearers head, a pair of spacer padding blocks 25, 25 are included at the free ends of the frontal cushion element 16 as will be seen in FIGURE 4. Further reference to FIGURE 3 will illustrate that the front edge of the blocks 25 is disposed immediately adjacent the ends of the front mounting strip 21 and that the additional thickness provided by these blocks fills the space which would normally be present between the backing layer 19 and the inner surface of the shell at these points.

For body contact sports, such as football, many injuries have been sustained by the players following the sudden partial angular displacement of the helmet upon the players head as a result of the helmet being struck by the body of another player or when the player strikes the ground in such manner as to force the helmet rearwardly on the head to cause the rim 20 at the back thereof to strike the back of the players neck. Such injuries to the neck are more prevalent particularly at the present time in view of the practically universal use of various types of face guards in combination with the football helmets now on the market since these face guards actually serve as a lever to multiply the force transmitted by the rear rim 20 of the helmet as it strikes the back of the wearers neck.

In accordance with the present invention, means are included for entirely preventing, or at least greatly minimizing the chances of this type of injury occurring. As previously described, the bottom rear edge of the posterior cushion element 17 extends downwardly beyond the rear rim 20 of the helmet. Attached to this bottom extension of the posterior cushion 17 is a neck pad 26 suitably attached to the rear surface of the duck backing 19 and extending rearwardly to a point at least below the rim 20 of the helmet disposed thereabove (FIGURE 2). This neck pad 26 is preferably constructed of a high impact type rubber similar to the padding 18 disposed on the inner surface of the cushion elements. Thus, it will be seen that should the helmet be tilted rearwardly, first the inner surface formed by the padding 18 and disposed below the rim 20 of the helmet would engage the back of the wearers neck and further rearward tilting of the helmet would only cause the rim 20 of the helmet shell to engage the top surface of the neck pad 26 thereby preventing the rim 20 from ever coming in contact with the wearers neck.

Disposed on the inner surface of the padding 18 of the posterior cushion element 17 is a retention pad 27 positioned above the level of the neck pad 26 and adapted to engage the small recess in the lower back portion of, the wearers head. When the helmet is properly placed on the head, it will be seen that the retention pad 27 will assist in preventing the helmet from being tilted forwardly since the pad will then abut the undersurface of the rearmost projection of the wearers skull.

It will be understood that all of the padding components herein described are preferably dipped into a suitable flexible composition, such as vinyl rubber, to provide a coating (not shown) fully enclosing each component. In this manner the cleanliness of the various padding elements may be readily maintained.

It is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the specific features shown, but that the means of con struction herein disclosed comprise the preferred form of several modes ofputting the invention into effect and the invention will therefore be understood in any of its forms or modifications within the legitimate and valid scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A helmet, comprising, a one-piece outer shell having a lower rim adapted to extend over the forehead in the front and dropping in the rear to a point adjacent the back of the neck, suspension means including a top head harness assembly fixedly attached within said shell, front and rear mounting means of substantially rigid material anchored within said shell immediately adjacent the front and rear of said lower rim, head size regulating means removably connected to said mounting means, said regulating means comprising frontal and posterior cushion elements releasably connected to said front and rear mounting means respectively and each including an outer backing layer of semi-flexible material co-extensively adhered to an inner layer of resilient padding adapted to engage the periphery of the wearers head, and said cushion elements extending from said harness assembly to said lower rim in the front and rear of said shell.

2. A helmet, comprising, a one-piece outer shell having a lower rim adapted to extend over the forehead in the front and adjacent the back of the neck in the rear, suspension means including a top head harness assembly fixedly attached within said shell, separate mounting means attached within the front and rear of said shell, head size regulating means removably connected to said mounting means, said regulating means comprising frontal and posterior cushion elements connected to said front and rear mounting means respectively, said cushion element extending from said harness assembly to said lower rim in the front and rear of said shell, and said posterior cushion element including an extension in the rear thereof below the level of said lower rim adjacent thereto, and a neck pad attached to the rear of said extension and projecting rearwardly to a point below the rear lower rim of said shell.

3. A helmet, comprising, a one-piece outer shell having a lower rim adapted to extend over the forehead in the front and adjacent the back of the neck in the rear, suspension means including a top head harness assembly fixedly attached Within said shell, separate mounting means attached within the front and rear of said shell, head size regulating means removably connected to said mounting means, said regulating means comprising frontal and posterior cushion elements connected to said front and rear mounting means respectively, said cushion ele- References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,785,404 3/1957 Strohm 23 6 Finken 23 Miller 26 Morgan 23 Pitman 23 Groot 26 JORDAN FRANKLIN, Primary Examiner.

FRANK J. COHEN, Examiner.

J. R. BOLER, Assistant Examiner. 

1. A HELMET, COMPRISING, A ONE-PIECE OUTER SHELL HAVING A LOWER RIM ADAPTED TO EXTENDED OVER THE FOREHEAD IN THE FRONT AND DROPPING IN THE REAR TO A POINT ADJACENT THE BACK OF THE NECK, SUSPENSION MEANS INCLUDING A TOP HEAD HARNESS ASSEMBLY FIXEDLY ATTACHED WITHIN SAID SHELL, FRONT AND REAR MOUNTING MEANS OF SUBSTANTIALY RIGID MATERIAL ANCHORED WITHIN SAID SHELL IMMEDIATELY ADJACENT THE FRONT AND REAR OF SAID LOWER RIM, HEAD SIZE REGULATING MEANS REMOVABLY CONNECTED TO SAID MOUNTING MEANS, SAID REGULATING MEANS COMPRISING FRONTAL AND POSTERIOR CUSHION 